Digital marketing is a nuanced industry. With so many different ranking factors and web design aspects to consider, it can be hard to know how to split your attention in a way that will most ideally benefit your company; given the increased amount of competition out there, this ability to balance is more important than ever. Let’s hear from some SEO industry experts to get their perspective on the tools and techniques that will best optimize your website.

The Human Experience

Search engines were made for human beings, so it makes sense that the content provided be useful and relevant to their needs and interests.

“Quality content is the way forward in 2019,” said Madison Carter of Deprigo. “People are hungry for more thoughtful, informative, and interesting content, and are tired of reading the same tired blogs over and over again. We obviously will still need to keep keywords in mind when writing content, but I think we’re moving towards a more human-centric focus in SEO going forward.”

“One of the most important SEO strategies for 2019 and beyond is increasing the interaction between website visitors and website content. The more a visitor interacts with the content the more it confirms to search engines that the right content has been delivered. This higher level of interaction will have a dramatic influence on the authority search engines allocate to the content, the page rank, and the domain.”

While this certainly applies to the content produced, it also plays a role behind the SEO scenes.

“Pages of reports and stats are becoming less important to clients,” said Dale Shadbegian of 118Group. “They want to have human and expert insight into what they mean. Expect to spend more time speaking to people about how their money is being invested and what those results are.”

Instead of churning out content like a factory, work with your client — in both the technical and creative aspects of the job — to produce something relevant and useful for all parties.

“Take the time to truly capture a client’s voice and culture to enable your team to clearly promote this voice throughout all digital content,” Jeremy Mountain of Bean Media Productions explained. “Using brand-consistent, creative, and updating messaging throughout site content, video, blogs, social media turns tactical SEO on the back end into personal relationships and trust on the front end.”

Know Your Field

By adding skilled and experienced writers and content creators to this focus, you’ll be able to capture the attention of consumers far and wide.

“In 2019, robust content and powerful backlinks will remain the most important pieces to ranking well on Google,” Donna Campanelli of Contractor-Websites stated. “Having good writers that understand how to research keywords and write search engine optimized content is key. Reading websites where keywords have been stuffed into the middle of a sentence is bad user experience and in my opinion, hurts conversion.”

This means committing to training your writers; don’t just rely on their college-level accolades and expect them to produce quality content, as Don Crow of Verge Pipe Media explained.

“Companies looking to hire digital talent have to commit to training — early and often! Too many college graduates today are coming out with certifications on their LinkedIn profile but with little to no understanding of how to put those concepts to work.”

Keep Up With The Technological Curve

This industry was based off of technological advancements and continues to adapt and evolve to match newfound developments. Your business must be aware of — and on top of — these crucial changes, or you just might fall behind.

“A/B test as much as you can. Don’t assume what will resonate the best with your audience, especially when it comes to digital content,” says Kristi Ruprecht of Hoot Design Co. “Measuring performance will provide more insight into your customer’s behavior compared to one-off campaigns that aren’t analyzed.”

“If you’re not optimizing your website for voice search yet, you’re already behind the curve,” stated Wendy Lindars of ENX2 Marketing. “Thanks to AI devices like Google Assistant and Siri, voice search is going to be more and more in use as time progresses; make sure you tailor your copy for voice search!”

“I see artificial intelligent bots being used more prevalently in digital marketing in 2019; especially with channels opening up and being combined with Messenger, Instagram, and Whatsapp.”

Such apps are heavily relied on in social media platforms; Facebook, in particular, is dominating.

“From an SEO Agency standpoint, we continue to see a rise in Demand for Facebook Video Advertising and Dynamic Advertising on Google’s Search Network,” said Nathan Shane of Krest Marketing. “Paid ads are becoming a better product for clients that want quicker customer conversions.

Final Tweaks and Touch-Ups

Other than quality content, many experts believe that onsite videos are a vital ranking factor due to their ability to inform and captivate consumers in a number of ways.

“According to Business 2 Community, video will make up 85% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020,” said Leonard Parker of Destiny Marketing Solutions. “Videos can be a versatile content asset, and they can benefit your SEO, Social, and Content Marketing campaigns. Furthermore, showcase different aspects of your business with video, including expert interviews, how-to and walkthroughs for the services or products you offer, and company culture!”

Knowing which keywords to pursue is on of the oldest tricks in the book. Dion Roy of New York AMP3 Public Relations explains, ““Knowing your keywords is a strategy that continues to produce consistent results in 2019. For me, I always think in the point of view of the customer: what would bring them to this website? Only once I can see from the customer’s perspective, can I actually produce results from content creation and link building.”

However, an informational video does nothing if it’s buried multiple pages deep on your company’s website; people will never see it. As Andrew Obrigewitsch of Full Stack Data Solutions explained, single page applications are the future.

“Single page applications offer many benefits as the same code base can be used for mobile apps as well, and sites will operate like apps. Many large companies are headed this way and it’s only a matter of time before our favorite CMS goes this route.”

Large companies aren’t the only ones paying attention to these trends.

“I see a much bigger shift happening in local SEO,” Brad Ormsby of ColorStone Marketing pointed out. “Small businesses are catching on and the competition is growing.”

Using schema to help Google understand your business is essential moving into the future. Brennen Bliss of PixelCutLabs explains, “Businesses need to be using contextually relevant schema structured data markup to help Google better find what is on a website, where it is located, and, most importantly, how to understand what it means and why it is relevant. It’s one thing for Google to be able to index the content on a website. It’s a whole new ballgame when we give Google what it needs to understand what that content means.”

He’s right; at the end of the day, the key to a truly successful digital marketing plan is a delicate mix of all of the above. Whether you choose to focus more on quality content or video optimization, you’ll know you’ve done well when you make it to that coveted number one spot.